Raspberry Pi Camera Waterproof Enclosure

These are some step-by-step instructions for making a waterproof enclosure for a Raspberry Pi (v2) camera board. Commercial versions of the product (with and without a Raspberry Pi camera board included) are available on the In Nature Robotics website: https://www.innaturerobotics.com/

WeatherBoxForPiCam_UserGuide_v3.pdf
Download

Supplies

1. Approximately 200 g of 3D printer filament. I used PLA, but other materials could work too.

2. 10 cm x 10 cm x 2 mm thick piece of plexiglass (this will need to be cut into an octagonal shape, so a hacksaw or some other implement for cutting plexiglass cleanly would be required).

3. 43 mm x 5 mm rubber O-ring for mounting underneath the plexiglass plate.

4. 36 mm x 3.5 mm rubber O-ring for mounting on the flange at the top of the threaded stem.

5. Raspberry Pi v2 Camera Module and ribbon cable.

6. Drill-able Electronics enclosure for housing the Raspberry Pi host computer board.

7. Silicone grease (recommended) for O-rings.

Step 1: 3D Print the Enclosure, Locking Collar, and Locking Nut.

There are 3 main parts to the WeatherBox waterproof enclosure that need to be 3D printed. The .STL and .SCAD (OpenSCAD) files for these can be found here: https://github.com/mlowerysimpson/WeatherBox These will take a while to print, probably over 24 hours!

The 3 files that need to be printed include:

1. Plexiglass_screw_plate

2. single_camera_mount_v4

3. hex_locking_nut

The other files need to be in the same folder as a reference.

For the hex_locking_nut file, I needed to scale the X and Y dimensions about 10% larger to get it to fit properly over the threaded stem; this may not be required for all printers though.

Step 2: Cut the Plexiglass Plate Into an Octagonal Shape

Start with a 2 mm thick square-ish section of plexiglass about 10 cm x 10 cm or larger. Use a sharpie or other marker to draw out a regular octagon shape on the plexiglass. The length of each side should be roughly 25 to 30 mm long. Make sure that the drawn shape fits over the large O-ring groove around the main enclosure created in step 1. Cut out the plexiglass using a suitable cutting tool. I used a fine bladed hacksaw, and positioned the plexiglass over a 50 mm thick slab of wood to prevent it from cracking due to bending.